Arms: The Royal Arms differenced by a label of three points argent, charged on the centre point with an anchor azure. Crest: On a coronet of crosses and fleurs-de-lys a lion statant guardant or, crowned with a like coronet and differenced by a label as in the Arms. Supporters: As with the Royal Arms differenced by a like coronet and label. Creations: B., E. and D. (all UK) 1986.

THE 1ST DUKE OF YORK, EARL OF INVERNESS and BARON KILLYLEAGH (Andrew Albert Christian Edward Windsor, CVO (1979)) [HRH The Duke of York CVO ADC, Buckingham Palace, London SW1 1AA]; born Buckingham Palace 19 Feb 1960; educ Gordonstoun, (Govr) Lakefield Coll Ontario (now Tstee) and RNC Dartmouth; RN: joined as Midshipman 1979, helicopter pilot HMS Invincible S Atlantic Campaign 1982, Personal ADC to his mother 1984–, sr pilot 815 Sqdn HMS Osprey at Portland 1994, MOD 1996, Lt-Cdr 1992, psc Dec 1992, Adml Sea Cadet Corps 1992–, cmded HMS Cottesmore 1993–94, with 702 Sqdn 1994–95, sr pilot 815 Sqdn 1995–96, MOD 1997–; Col-in-Ch: Canadian Airborne Regt 1991–93, Roy Irish Regt 1992–, Staffs Regt (Prince of Wales's) 1989–, Roy New Zealand Army Logistic Regt 1997–, Queen's York Rangers 1997–; Freedom City York 1987; Cdre Roy Thames Yacht Club, Freeman Shipwrights' Co, Er Bro Corp Trin Ho, Patron: Army Museums Ogilvy Tst, Army Offrs' Golfing Soc, Aycliffe Centre for Young People, Badminton Assoc of England, JBr Deaf Assoc, BSES Expdns, Children North East, Children's Fndn, City Ballet of London, Cwlth Golfing Soc, Co Antrim Yacht Club, Contemporary Dance Tst, Defeating Deafness, Falklands Conservation, Fight for Sight, Fire Serv Sports and Athletics Assoc, Fleet Air Arm Museum, Friends of Lakefield Coll Sch, Friends of the Staffs Regt (POW's), Golf Fndn, Greenwich Hosp, Jubilee Sailing Tst, Killyleagh Yacht Club, Lucifer Golfing Soc, Opera North, Round Square, Roy Artillery Golfing Soc, Roy Belfast Golf Club, Roy Blackheath Golf Club, Roy Coll Ophthalmologists, Roy Cwlth Soc for Deaf, Roy Co Down Golf Club, Roy Free Hampstead NHS Tst, Roy Jersey Golf Club, Roy Liverpool Golf Club, Roy Montrose Golf Club, RN Golf Assoc, RN Golfing Soc, Roy Perth Golfing Soc, Roy Portrush Golf Club, Roy St David's Golf Club, Roy Victoria Yacht Club, Roy W Norfolk Golf Club, Sail Trg Assoc, SS Great Britain Project, Swordfish Heritage Tst, Understanding Industry, Welsh Badminton Union, Weston Spirit, York Minster Fund, Yorks Business Conf, Young Electronic Designer Awards; Pres Roy Household Golf Club and Faldo Jr Series, Tstee Nat Maritime Museum, Outward Bound Tst, Visitor Roy Hosp Sch; author: Photographs (1985); married Westminster Abbey 23 July 1986 (divorce 1996) Sarah Margaret, 2nd daughter of Brig Ronald Ivor Ferguson (see DACRE, B, and POWERSCOURT, V), and has:

1a +Beatrice Elizabeth Mary; born Portland Hosp London 8 Aug 1988

2a +Eugenie Victoria Helena; born Portland Hosp 23 March 1990

York, previous creations: Unless one counts William de Aumale, briefly Earl of Yorkshire from late August 1138, it may be said that York as a title has only ever existed as a Dukedom and has invariably been conferred on an immediate member of the Royal family, usually the Sovereign's next to eldest son. The first Duke of York was EDMUND of Langley, EDWARD III's 4th surviving son and founder of the House of York. His great-grandson EDWARD, 4th DUKE OF YORK of this, the 1385 creation, became EDWARD IV, when his titles merged in the Crown. The next creation (in 1474) was in favour of RICHARD, EDWARD IV's younger son and one of the Princes in the Tower, with whose death it expired. HENRY, later HENRY VIII, was created DUKE OF YORK in 1494 when his elder brother ARTHUR was still alive but as with EDWARD IV the title merged with the Crown on his coming to the throne. So too with CHARLES I, who had been created DUKE OF YORK in January 1604/5, when his elder brother HENRY was still alive; and again in the case of JAMES II.

The pattern was disarranged slightly when GEORGE I created his youngest brother ERNEST AUGUSTUS not DUKE OF YORK but DUKE OF YORK AND ALBANY, and in 1716, when he had already come to the throne, rather than when he was merely expected to. It took the Old Pretender to put things right, as it were, by making Henry, his younger of two sons, titular Duke of York, in conventional fashion even if it was only a pious hope at the time that the creation could ever have any true validity, doing so probably at the time of the boy's birth in March 1724/5. The dual form DUKE OF YORK AND ALBANY was resuscitated by GEORGE II in 1760, six months before his own death, when he conferred that title on his eldest son's second son EDWARD AUGUSTUS, the future GEORGE III's next younger brother. The title expired seven years later when the grantee died unmarried.

GEORGE III followed his grandfather's example, creating the second in line to the throne (and his second son) DUKE OF YORK AND ALBANY in 1784. The latter was always known as DUKE OF YORK, however. He was a competent but not outstanding general, the rhyme about him marching his men up and down a hill giving an inadequate curriculum vitae, and was promoted Commander-in-Chief, as which he tightened up discipline and improved the professionalism of the officer corps, notably by founding what later became the Staff College and the Royal Military College Sandhurst. His love of good order did not extend to money matters, however, and his career was destroyed by the revelation that his former mistress Mary Anne Clarke had been trafficking in promotions. (She was an ancestress of the novelist Daphne Du Maurier, though apparently not by HRH.) The next DUKE OF YORK, so created in 1892, was the present holder's great-grandfather GEORGE V, whose titles on his ascending the throne merged in the Crown, as was the case also when GEORGE VI succeeded in 1936, he having been created DUKE OF YORK in 1920.

Inverness, previous creations: For the Duchy of Inverness conferred in 1840 on Lady Cecilia Underwood, see ARRAN, E. For the Viscountcy of Inverness created in 1684 see HUNTLY, M. Both GEORGE V and GEORGE VI had as a subsidiary title when still DUKE OF YORK an Earldom of Inverness. For the titular Earldom and Dukedom of Inverness conferred by the titular James III see KINNOULL, E.

Killyleagh, constituent title in other peerage creation: See DUFFERIN AND CLANEBOYE, B.